Frozen wort and bottle conditioning - an alternative perspective

[Mr. No-Tip]

Hey All,

I had a temp probe fall out of the fridge during the week and partially freeze two fermenters that were crash chilling. I estimate the egdes got to about -3 and for possibly up to 18 hours. There were ice crystals in the beer but it wasn't frozen solid.

As the batch was to be largely bottle conditioned, I decided to pitch 1/2 a packet of US05 in the bulk prime, informed by a few threads, some from AHB.

I did some test bottles without the bulk yeast.

After just a few days, all bottles, even the frozen yeast only, are carbonating fine (PET squish test).

Most people will say pitch more yeast. I'd still consider all factors if this happened to you, and maybe err on the side of caution and cloudiness, but just an alternative view - it may well be just fine without extra yeast.

 

[brzt6060]

I had something similar happen once, massive floating chunk of ice floating in the middle of the fermenter. All bottles carbed up just fine.

 

[Mr B]

Very interesting and timely post.

I cracked a bottle of a blend of the last of two batches I kegged, Kegged versions of both were Mmmmmmmmmm. Seriously.

It has very little carbonation (some 'spritz' but no head). Both were crash chilled for a week or so, maybe 0 deg from memory?

Could explain why so, I was mildly contemplating it when I read your post

Edit. Post above whilst I was writing. Maybe a loose bottletop as I was contemplating, or somesuch. One bottle is not such a big sample I guess.......

 

[slcmorro]

A lack of head (hehe) is not an indication of no carbonation.

Are you saying there's no rising bubbles? How long was the bottle kept to do it's thing? What temp was it at? How did you carbonate it - bulk prime, sugar, drops, how much?

 

[Mr B]

Aww, damn, I really missed a golden opportunity for a joke didn't I.............

Carbonation is down on the kegged versions, and no head (sigh..). Bulk primed to ~3 volumes with Dex, about three weeks ago, kept at ambient in foam boxes, so prob about 25 deg. 32g in 6l (used priming calculator).

Just ran figures again. May have farked it up The beer must have warmed up too much, being a small volume and so not enough sugar. Whoops. No major drama though, still a nice drop.